Changing shifts so to speak

Life used to be so simple at one time.

Trucker #1
"Hey trucker, you look a little tired."

Trucker #2
Yeah, I gotta get this load there for the morning but I'm bagged and don't think I'll make it."

Trucker #1
"Well here, take a couple of these. My wife is overweight and my kid is hyperactive, they both have prescriptions for ritalin, try a couple of these."
(hands you two 20 mg tablets)

One hot cup of coffee and 1/2 an hour later your hair begins to tingle, your eyes are open wide and won't close, you run out to your truck and push start it, in the first hour of driving you clean the inside of the truck and talk to every driver you see on the CB radio, you stop for a tire check and wash the truck with a sock and a tooth brush in 10 minutes, you drive all night, unload, reload, then drive another 200 miles before you lay down for a nap and sleep like a baby.

Then along came Ronnie and he got all us drug crazed killers off the road and replaced them with the much safer group of straight arrow truckers we have today.

 

If you don't use split-break often you are almost certainly going to screw up your HOS when you try to use split-break. This screw up almost always comes down to driving too long before taking the break. There is no shortcut that allows you to drive 10 hours and 57 minutes and then sleep or go off-duty for less than 10 hours and drive more than the 3 minutes remaining. If you want to split-break you have to take your sleeper/off-duty with hours and hours and hours still available on your drive time. For example drive 5 or 6 hours, sleep 8, drive remaining 6 or 5 hours, sleep/off-duty 2 hours.

99% of the time I've been asked how to split-break in real life the driver needs a way to drive 11, sleep 1-2, and drive some more. There isn't a way for a solo driver to do that. If you screw up a split-break you can easily get an "egregious" HOS violation like being several hour short on your 10 hour break. That will bring big fines or worse. IMO, drivers worry excessively about 1-30 minutes HOS violations and show no hesitation to walk right into a GIANT HOS violation using split-break.

 

What are u talking about? I am not a cb rambo, my cb is off most of the time, because i dont want to hear that nonsense... i was simply saying, some guys complain about running at night or being tired, but these are the same guys to complain there company isnt giving them any miles....i enjoy the challenge of changing sleep paterns and i will run the load and get it there watever it takes... i have never put my truck in the ditch and wont ever put myself in the situation where that is my only option...... I am not the guy tailgating and passing alot of trucks, i am usually the slow and steady at 60 to 63 , barely even use cruise... i was just saying some guys just need to suck it up and get a move on

 

Sorry bro, I don't believe in the " suck it up " mentality. That is what gets drivers into dangerous situations. Your attitude and ability only encourages your dispatch to continue to put you in harms way. It also affects your overall health.
My current job has me starting at different times, usually barely getting 10 hours between loads but I make sure I get adequate sleep. I had a local job many years ago running hard with my start times around 5pm daily. I was all over the road by 2am. It just wasn't for me. I felt like I was going to hurt myself or someone else.
You might be ok with the variable start times but I wouldn't advise others to do it because you can. Just sayin'

 

I agree , not everybody can do it, but it makes me laugh the guys i hear talk about getting no miles, but then tell u they just turned down 3 loads cuz they dont wanna run at night or watever...i would never put myself in a dangerous situation, if i get tired , i pull over... not all of us need dispatch to hold our hands... but if u cant take the heat then u shouldnt be in the kitchen, so i dont wanna hear these guys complain about no miles but they are scared to run....

 

I call those guys " solar powered truck drivers ". But if they can't handle it I'd rather them be home or sitting than running out there with my family on the roads.

 

So newbies think it's a 9-5 job. had one walk out of company orientation - quote he does not work after 8 pm or before 6 am. Go figure !!!!!

 

And what would pay be for the rest of us if the solar-powered, auto-only, no mountains for me drivers just stayed home all of the time? The rest of us could park a lot easier. Newer drivers, IMO, have been raised where ANY difficulty is smoothed over for them and they still expect veteran treatment. There are reasons most newbies washout fast. Not all of them are because the companies won't rub their back while they try to sleep. A lot of newbies would rather quit than park in a parking spot.

 

I hope the quitter was a white guy or there will be a discrimination lawsuit headed toward that company.

 

My favorite is the last minute changes. I thought we were going to drop and then sit at a truck stop for the afternoon, then head to start our huge run that starts tomorrow.

So my partner and I both slept overnight thinking it was going to be fine. Wake up and Oh y'all gotta go here pick this up and take it to terminal first. Now here we are waiting to be loaded, both wide awake and we will take it to Chicago, wait to be unloaded before we can head up north.

I will drive overnight to get us up there then we gotta start working tomorrow probably all day. Lol. Had I known I would have stayed awake last night and I would be asleep right now. But we didnt know.

I dont understand why they cant just get some local or regional guy to do it. My GUESS is its because the driver would milk hours, and they know we would get it done ASAP because we have a full day tomorrow.